It'd Be Nice If It Worked...
Written: Jan 20 '05 (Updated Jan 21 '05)
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Pros: Obscenely loud. (Relatively) pretty.
Cons: The connection is horrible, the documentation is wrong, and it's overpriced.
The Bottom Line: Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere.
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| underdawg's Full Review: Sharper Image SA251 Subwoofer Speaker |
As I get older and wiser, I have come to realize that most Sharper Image electronic products are not as high-quality as I thought they were. Sure, their products have nice claims and nifty little diagrams/graphs, but I think the Sharper Image sells mostly because their stuff looks nice.
Looks
This subwoofer isn't terribly pretty, but it'd probably place somewhere in a subwoofer beauty pageant, as most designers fail to make subs aesthetically pleasing. They are big boxes for the most part, and are there to provide the boomboomboom but are meant to be stuck under a desk or cabinet somewhere, out of sight. I mean, there's a picture right here, and it matches with most of the Sharper Image stereos. In a world of big black boxes, a silver cylinder-shaped one is the prettiest.
Lies
I bought this for $90 extra when I bought a Sharper Image stereo. The product documentation said something like "automatically adjusts with your system's volume"...basically, the louder I turn up my system, the more thump I'm supposed to get. Guess what? It doesn't do that AT ALL. If my system is on low and I turn up this sub...all I will hear is boomboomboom and no lalala. Or if I adjust the sub volume to a good balance with my stereo, and I turn up the volume of my stereo, the bass will start to fade. Why? Because the subwoofer volume stays the same. This is pretty misleading. Shame on you Sharper Image.
Upsides...A Short Section
Still, I could live with that I guess. And this sub does have its upsides. The bass can get really really obscenely loud, which I like sometimes. Um...it looks nice. It's a snap to set up, just plug it in an outlet, and plug this one plug into your stereo.
Sound
Sound quality is not so great. Normally, I like any kind of bass, but when you turn this up, it's really more dirty sounding than anything. This doesn't have the tight sound of higher quality subs. At medium volumes, the sound is acceptable, but not great. I suspect that this may be because, as others have pointed out, the speaker points down. And I'm not really an audiophile, so if YOU are, you definitely should stay away.
Doesn't Work
And the main reason I hate this subwoofer. It just doesn't work much of the time. Sometimes, the bass gets really faint, even if I turn it up all the way. Then I tinker around with the connection, turn it off and on again, plug it in and out, and eventually, when I have my ear close to the subwoofer to see if it's working, the bass will come at full force again. Something just seems to be wrong with the connection and it just works on-and-off again. Definitely annoying, so I exchanged for a new one. Guess what? After a few months of bassy bliss, it did the same thing again. The fact that they let me exchange in the first place admits that the subwoofer I got was indeed defective. The fact that this happened again means that both the subwoofers I got were defective. The fact that this happened twice to me means that this is just a shoddy product or I just have really really bad luck.
Conclusion
This is an expensive ($90 or so) subwoofer with decent sound, and is obscenely loud at MAX volume. So it's a so-so product until you realize that the connection isn't working. By buying this product you are submitting to a lifetime of turning this trash on and off again, plugging it in and out, over and over again for the rest of your life. Don't be like me and get a matching subwoofer for a Sharper Image stereo. Some things are worse than clashing stereo/subwoofers. Do yourself a favor and avoid this one.
p.s. I'm trying to make my reviews more concise. Feel free to leave feedback if I missed something, because this isn't very long. Thanxxx for reading.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 90
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Epinions.com ID:
underdawg
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Member: brian
Location: nyc
Reviews written: 228
Trusted by: 109 members
About Me:
city never sleeps, better slip you an ambien
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